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Primary dealers — the elite corps of super-safe bond dealers like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan who trade in the $11.8 trillion market with the New York Fed — are not happy with their treatment by the Fed and Treasury.

The dealers are grumbling about strict rules that mandate they bid on 5 percent of each government bond auction, whether they need it or not.

But what has them steaming at the bond desks is that large customers like foreign central banks and hedge funds can effectively bypass the dealers and buy US debt directly from Treasury, and it’s happening on a greater scale.

But when customers sell the debt, they give it back to primary dealers. “The field is not level,” said one trader. “It can be very frustrating, and costly, around the auctions.”

Primary dealers don’t think the equation is fair. And right now they feel pinched for profits and may walk away.

Why does this matter? Well, the ultra-low Treasury bond rates right now and relatively low consumer-lending rates depend on the smooth functioning of the government-bond market, and by extension, the primary dealers.